Some new numbers have just been released detailing how the food and beverage sector has performed in the past year.
Next to health care, this is a part of the economy that probably most felt the effects of COVID-19 and how public authorities responded to the challenge.
Sometimes an industry group is something of a proxy for the state of affairs in the broader policy environment. The numbers detailing how the segment fared provide an interesting snapshot of how things went in various provinces.
The numbers are from February, which coincides with when restrictions in many parts of the country were easing.
They show that restaurant and bar owners in most provinces were seeing customers again, especially in Ontario and Quebec where revenues for the month were higher than January and up 50 per cent from a year earlier.
In Saskatchewan, on the other hand, where restrictions were lighter, revenue gains in February were the lowest in the country and the annual increase was among the smallest, largely because we had fewer restrictions and a shorter distance to go to get back to normal.
